So tomorrow we are moving in to our new place in Vancouver,and a week after we will both be moving out to different locations for work. DH heading south to San Francisco for his usual Mac convention, and me to the Banff mountains.
I have heard so much about Banff World TV Fest, I am beginning to feel I am about to attend someone’s wedding. You know the Malay kind. You get ready for hours, rush to the wedding just so that you arrive at the best time (that’s usually 1-1.30pm when the groom and bride are together on the dais) and then only to eat for 20 minutes, smile, nod and then leave. Errr…hardly a celebration yes? I have always wondered the rationale behind such weddings and why bother to invite the whole world who couldn’t care less about you tying the knot. Having said that, holding conferences in resort towns are equally baffling. The paradox is unequivocal.
You see, everyone in the film and TV industry will tell you they are a busy bunch. Yet the biggest festivals are held at faraway places like Banff, Berlin and Cannes. To get there, you need to fly to the main city, change flights, take a shuttle, ride a boat – you get the picture.
Take Banff. To get there, I need to fly for 1.5 hours, wait 1 hour and then take a 2 hour shuttle before arriving at the hotel. Funny eh. I thought we are all busy. So why on earth are meeting in the mountains?
Anyway, the good people in marketing will tell you it is the crisp mountain air, the shiny morning sun, the melting snow yada yada yada that will help all of us funny TV people to mesh our brains and work out the finances to produce yet another TV show. We also hope to move mountains. Right. Even so, I thought everyone is busy? Can’t we have a conference in a city where the airport is 20 mins away?
I don’t know. I was in another conference in Washington DC and it was so jam-packed with meetings I only get to go out of the hotel for 5 freaking hours in that entire 4 days. I look at my schedule and I see a repeat. So what crisp air are we talking about here?
I’ll probably be inhaling smoke from the patio.